COLUMN: Take note of your dogs’ health
A trip to the vet might be costly but it may prevent future illnesses or issues before they get any worse!
• Nadine Whittal, dog trainer writes:
Once again, I am going to share my own recent experiences with you in the hope that you either learn from my mistakes or take my experiences into account when handling your own animals. The past month has been a tough one for my dogs and their health.
One morning my little Jack Russel, Dusty, refused his breakfast. This was after refusing his dinner the night before. Now a dog missing one meal is not really a train smash, but more than one meal starts to become a problem. Upon checking, his gums appeared white instead of their normal pink and he was far less energetic than he would usually be.
So, I packed him into the car and off we went to the vet. Turns out little Dusty was extremely anaemic. What this means is that he was not replacing or replenishing red blood cells fast enough and as a result he was feeling listless, nauseous and pretty gross.
Also read: COLUMN: That dog-handler relationship
Now there are several things that can cause anaemia – poisoning is a common cause of sudden onset of anaemia and is one of the reasons you should not waste time in seeing a vet for these symptoms. Another is biliary which is basically the animal version of tick bite fever, and of course there are reasons related to disease or organ failure. None of these are particularly fun to think about, as all have very serious consequences.
Unfortunately, we have no idea what caused Dustys’ anaemia. We know it wasn’t parasites because the vet did check for parasites, we could not find any evidence of poison or human disturbance in or around our yard, and Dusty does not seem to be suffering from any particular disease. So the vet treated him for all of the above, including giving him a blood-clotting coagulant and vitamin injections to improve platelet production.
I am happy to announce that Dusty seems to have made a full recovery! Nevertheless, over the next few weeks we will be monitoring him closely in case any symptoms return and he needs more extensive testing to determine the cause of the issue.
The lesson here: take note of your dogs’ behaviour and respond accordingly. A trip to the vet might be costly but it may prevent future illnesses or issues before they get any worse!
